Leuchtende Landschaften

The colour magic of early cinema
Stencil-coloured landscape films from the 1910s and 1920s are among the most dazzling treasures of early cinema. The travel pictures produced by the French company Pathé Frères shine in colours that were applied frame by frame with astonishing care using the Pathécolor process – a magical craftsmanship that continues to have an impact today. Some of this material comes from the Pathé Revue newsreel, segments of which were re-edited in Austria after their initial release before being added to the Filmarchiv Austria collection via the Austrian Film Service. The programme thus not only offers a glimpse into the colour-intensive aesthetics of the time, but also shows how these images later found an unexpected second life in Austrian educational filmmaking.
(Elena Kracker)

The programme will be introduced by Elena Kracker (Technical Department of the Filmarchiv Austria).

Live musical accompaniment by Heidi Fial.